You Sunk my Battleship!
Or how Covid19 finally got me after artfully dodging it for two and half years. Throughout this post, remember we stayed away from others and followed all Scottish Government guidance regarding testing positive for #Covid19
ON THURSDAY (23rd June 2022) I was feeling grotty as all hell. Throat hurting, admirable snot generation rate from the nostrils but no temperature (36.8C) however I was pretty sure it #Covid19 before I took the test. How could I be so sure it wasn't hayfever or just a summer cold? Well, minime2 (2nd born child) had contracted covid the previous week, along with four of her friends, at their maskless High School. It presented as mild hayfever symptoms for them and thankfully, it was just a couple of days in bed being...well... a normal teenager really. It was no issue.
Then Mrs. C got unwell with a repetitive cough, bunged up and feeling sorry for herself - though she claims to have tested negative, I was deeply sceptical as, in her own words she "rarely feels the need for sympathy when unwell, but this was one of those times". So, in our closed system house, it was inevitable it would get me.
Under current Scottish guidance, you are to work from home if you can, so fortunately for me this meant no change as I am now a permanent home worker. I didn't get a lot of work done to be honest and the following day my boss gently enquired if I felt well enough to work. I was pretty resistant to taking any time off I mean, they are going to pay me sick leave anyway. If I am only gently prodding spreadsheets occasionally during work time and answering queries, I might not be firing anywhere near to 'on all cylinders' but they are getting something out of me. But I relented and chilled out. Mrs C described it as 'the quietest I have been in a long time' so I probably did need the break.
Currently, the rates of infection in Scotland are staggeringly high compared to the rest of the UK, and I am not sure why that is. It's perhaps the Scottish nature to be slightly fatalistic "ah well, we need to get on with it" mindest that is providing the easy transmission though I don't think this entirely accounts for it. Certainly, when minime2 first tested positive, we had to inform their choir group of their condition as they had been at rehearsal 2 days before when probably infectuous. They and Mrs C recovered by the time the choir put on a performance to a packed room that I attended, two days before I tested positive. So it's certainly not difficult to see how the infection spreads.
BUT. There was still a part of me - a teeny weeny sliver of positivity (no pun intended) telling me that it WAS just a cold and that this was all nonsense. So, this morning (Saturday 25 June 2022) I performed another lateral flow test - nasal stick dance of joy. Can I tickle my brain? The depressing result was even quicker than the first test and appeared to shout loudly with an even clearer T line 'YOU HAVE FUCKING COVID, OK?!?!' Even as I type this, I must confess the headache is starting to settle back in, and I am starting to feel like I have a temperature, even though I don't. It's an odd sensation tbh.
SYMPTOMS - well, other than the headaches and random chills, the one I didn't expect was the diarrhoea coupled with mad stomach cramps a few hours after eating. That seems to have subsided but wow.. that was something. Talk about the world dropping out your bottom! When I related this to someome, their response was 'Oh, have they added that back onto the list of symptoms?', completely missing the point I was suffering with it. Was a slow blink moment. I haven't suffered any loss of taste or sense of smell which I am really glad of. I don't register a high temperature though I am sweating and have spells of skin-crawling. There is a low-level, niggling headache that is bopped on the head quite effectively by ibuprofen, but I haven't found anything to combat the fuzzy-headed-ness and lethargy. Though I have sacrificed the diet to try many, many snacks in the hope of finding a winning formula. Mwahahaha. Monstermunch - you are the next test subject!
So, if like me, you were doing a great job of avoiding #Covid19, do be aware the sucker is still out there and pretty rampant in its current Omicron guise. If, like me, you are triple vaccinated, overweight, over 40 and about as fit as a clapped-oot shire-horse on the way to the <REDACTED> Crispy Pancake factory then take heart, the infection is inconvenient and crappy but thanks to modern medicine, we'll pull through. I'll leave it to my kids to update this blog entry, mourning that, after making this post, my insides liquified and I pooed myself inside out. Or something. Stay safe, stay well o7
Have you had Covid19 yet?
- Yes
- No
- More times than hot dinners